Wireless telephone with metered shuttle on face

• US 6,397,084 B1
• Filed: 02/07/1997
• Issued: 05/28/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Hasegawa, Yutaka, Wicks, James E.
• Primary Examiner(s): VO, NGUYEN THANH
• Application Number:
  US08/795,125
• Time in Patent Office: 1,936 Days
• Field of Search: 455/575,566,550,90,351,347 379/433,434,428,433.04,433.06-433.07 341/20,21,22 345/145,157
• US Class Current: 455/566
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0235 Slidable or telescopic telephones, i.e. with a relative translation movement of the body parts; Telephones using a combination of translation and other relative motions of the body parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/233 including a pointing device, e.g. roller key, track ball, rocker switch or joystick constructional details of pointing devices per se G06F3/033

Abstract

A wireless telephone unit of the present invention has an improved shuttle for more ergonomically and efficiently entering input to the telephone unit. The shuttle, acting as a rotary encoder, controls the scrolling of material across a display of the wireless telephone unit. The shuttle is located on the face of the wireless telephone unit so as to be operated by the thumb of a user without regard to whether the telephone unit is held in the right or left hand of the user. The shuttle further comprises a detent mechanism such that increments of rotation of the shuttle passed the detent mechanism are perceptible to the user and are correlated to an amount of material scrolled across the display. The shuttle is also displacable along its access of rotation to input parameter information to the wireless telephone unit. The telephone unit'"'"'s keypad may be hidden in the unit when not in use.

Claims

1. A wireless telephone unit comprising:

a body, said body having a face portion and a keypad portion;

a speaker mounted in said face portion;

a microphone mounted on said body;

a memory that stores data of a plurality of communicatees;

a microcomputer that controls a plurality of telephone functions, whereby said microcomputer reads data from the memory in accordance with user instruction;

a display mounted on said face portion and substantially centered along a body longitudinal axis that displays said data read from the memory;

a shuttle for selecting a user instruction, said shuttle rotatable about a single axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis and disposed substantially centered along said longitudinal axis on the face portion and longitudinally below the display such that said shuttle is operated by a user finger with equal ease regardless of whether said unit is held in the left or right hand of said user without the user finger interfering with the user viewing the display;

a shuttle signal encoder that detects the direction and magnitude of the shuttle rotation and outputs a signal to the microcomputer indicative of the rotation parameters of the shuttle; and

an input device used in conjunction with said shuttle for selecting material displayed on said display;

wherein said display is driven by the microcomputer using data read from the memory that was retrieved in response to the user'"'"'s rotation of the shuttle and the resulting shuttle encoder signal.

2. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said material displayed on said display includes a telephone directory stored by said unit.

3. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said material displayed on said display includes a menu of function of said unit.

4. The wireless telephone unit of claim 1, further comprising:

a detent mechanism wherein an increment of rotation of said shuttle is made perceptible to said user by said detent mechanism.

5. The wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 4, wherein said increment of rotation corresponds to a predetermined amount of material to be scrolled across said display in response to the rotation of said shuttle.

6. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 4, wherein said material displayed on said display includes a telephone directory stored by said unit.

7. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 4, wherein said material displayed on said display includes a menu of functions of said unit.

8. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 4, wherein said increment of rotation corresponds to a predetermined amount of material to be scrolled across said display in response to the rotation of said shuttle.

9. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 4, wherein said shuttle may be displaced along said axis, said displacement along said axis being a means of inputting a parameter to said unit.

10. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 4, wherein said input device is activated by pressing said shuttle.

11. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 4, wherein said keypad is movably mounted to slide into a recess in said unit so as to be hidden in said unit when not in use.

12. The wireless telephone unit of claim 1 further comprising:

a detent mechanism wherein an increment of rotation of said shuttle is made perceptible to said user by said detent mechanism;

wherein said increment of rotation corresponds to a predetermined amount of material to be scrolled across said display in response to the rotation of said shuttle; and

wherein said predetermined amount of material is a number of lines of material equal to a maximum number of lines said display can display at one time.

13. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 12, wherein said material displayed on said display includes a telephone directory stored by said unit.

14. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 12, wherein said material displayed on said display includes a menu of functions of said unit.

15. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 12, wherein said shuttle may be displaced along said axis about which said shuttle rotates, said displacement along said axis being a means of inputting a parameter to said unit.

16. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 10, wherein said keypad is movably mounted to slide into a recess in said unit so as to be hidden in said unit when not in use.

17. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein when said shuttle is displaced along said axis about which said shuttle rotates, said displacement along said axis being a means of inputting a parameter to said unit.

18. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said input device for selecting is activated by pressing said shuttle into said face.

19. A wireless telephone unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said keypad is movably mounted to slide into a recess in said unit so as to be hidden in said unit when not in use.